Your Right to Know

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoVOICE OF JIHAD WEBSITE VIA APArmy Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, pictured before his release, was swapped for five Taliban fighters held in Guantanamo Bay. President Barack Obama said it’s likely some of those Taliban will return to fighting.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said yesterday that the controversial prisoner swap that
freed Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from five years of captivity in Afghanistan is “something that I
would do again.”

“We have released, both under my administration and previous administrations, a large number of
former Taliban fighters, some of whom will return to the battlefield,” he said. “But by definition,
you don’t do prisoner exchanges with your friends, you do ’em with your enemies.”

He said other tough choices lie ahead as the United States extricates its forces from
Afghanistan over the next two years.

“It’s important for us to recognize that the transition process of ending a war is going to
involve, on occasion, releasing folks who we may not trust but we can’t convict,” Obama said in an
interview with NBC’s Brian Williams.

“And I’ve been very clear about the fact that over time, we’re going to have to whittle away at
the number of prisoners who were in Guantanamo as part of this transition out of the war in
Afghanistan.”

About 150 detainees remain in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, most for more
than a dozen years. None has been brought to trial.

The facility, set up after the Sept. 11 attack, held more than 750 detainees at one point.

The interview was the first time Obama has described the prisoner exchange in the context of his
repeated vows to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay.

Congress has made that impossible so far, and anger welled up this week because Obama didn’t
consult Congress before transferring the five Taliban members to Qatar this past Saturday as part
of the swap for Bergdahl.

Under international law, countries typically release or repatriate prisoners of war at the end
of hostilities.

An administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the White House doesn’t
see the expected withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2016 as a legal
tripwire, however.

According to a transcript of the interview with NBC, Obama made clear he is at least aware of
2016 as he considers ways to shrink the population at Guantanamo Bay.

“So, is this part of that Guantanamo drawdown?” Williams asked.

“It’s a specific circumstance involving a U.S. service member who we needed to get back,” Obama
replied. “The point I’m making, though, is that there are a number of individuals who’ve been
released in the past in Guantanamo who are not the kind of people that you and I would consider
friends of the United States of America.

“But by definition, if we, in fact, are ending a war,” he said, “then there’s going to be a
process in which some of those individuals are going to be released.”